The history of Shanxi merchants

As early as the pre-Qin era, the commercial trading activities of "Japan and China are the market, people from all over the world, goods from all over the world are praised, and the transaction retreats to get its place" began in southern Shanxi.

Emerging commercial towns such as Zhangzhou, Taigu, Pingding and Datong appeared in Sui, Tang and Five Dynasties.

"Li Tang established an army in Taiyuan, making Taiyuan the capital of the north, straddling the banks of the Fenhe River and enjoying prosperous business. A poem by Han Yu, a poet in the Tang Dynasty, describes it like this: "Lang Lang smells street drums like morning. "

From the Zhou and Qin Dynasties to the Sui and Tang Dynasties, although there were some big businessmen in Shanxi, compared with businessmen in other places, they did not have a prominent position and a certain organization, and did not form a merchant force.

In the Song Dynasty, "Southern Shu, Southern Shang and Northern Shang were famous local businessmen, and Shanxi merchants and Huizhou merchants, as the backbone of modern commerce, also showed their talents at this time.

"In the Song Dynasty, Shanxi was located in the northeast frontier. Most of the war horses needed in the Song Dynasty were supplied by Liao in the north, and Liao needed handicraft products of the Song Dynasty more.

In 996 AD, he set up a city in Shanxi to exchange markets with vassals in Bianzhou, and "merchants along the border went deep into the forbidden area" to trade.

Later Zhao and Song Dynasties, for fear of endangering their own political power, ordered several times to close the market, which was actually impossible.

In the Yuan Dynasty, although the war had a certain destructive effect on industry and commerce, the Yuan regime ended the drama-cutting situation in the Song, Liao and Jin Dynasties, especially the completion of the post station in the Yuan Dynasty, which expanded the area of commercial activities.

From the Travels of Marco Polo, it can be seen that "businessmen from Taiyuan to Pingyang (Linfen) are all over the country, making great profits".

The rise of Shanxi merchants, first of all, was the implementation of the "open China system" policy in the Ming Dynasty, which provided an opportunity for the development of Shanxi merchants. Secondly, Shanxi is rich in mineral resources, and handicraft industry and processing manufacturing industry have begun to take shape at that time, which provided a material basis for the development of Shanxi merchants and made them gradually brilliant; In addition, due to the narrow land and dense population in the south of Shanxi, going out to do business has become a means for people to make a living. At that time, Jinzhong merchants had spread all over the country, and there was a popular saying in Beijing: "The capital is big, and Jia is a Jin."

With the increasingly fierce commercial competition, in order to strengthen their own strength and safeguard their own interests, commercial organizations of Shanxi merchants began to appear.

At the beginning, local businessmen were hired at the expense of well-funded businessmen, who jointly operated and cooperated with friends to become a loose group of businessmen. Later, it developed into an oriental partnership system similar to the joint-stock system, which was a great pioneering work of Shanxi merchants and an important reason for their enduring.

Although Shanxi merchants appeared in the form of local organizations in the Ming Dynasty, their development reached its peak in the Qing Dynasty, and its important symbol was the establishment of guild halls.

The guild hall was originally designed to contact the feelings of fellow villagers, and later developed into an organization to safeguard the interests of peers or fellow villagers.

Shanxi merchants developed into the Qing Dynasty and became the most powerful business gang in China.

World economic historians compare them with Italian businessmen and give them high praise.

The development of business has not only brought wealth to people, but also changed people's concept of "learning to be an excellent official" for many years.

It is said that "it is better to have two thousand pieces of silver at home than to have someone in the teahouse", and it is better to be a guest in the teahouse when an official enters the cabinet.

The teahouse ticket number was a very popular industry at that time.

During this period, Shanxi merchants lived in China and enjoyed a good reputation in Europe and Asia, and their brilliant achievements attracted worldwide attention.

It is particularly worth pointing out that in the process of Shanxi merchants dominating, there are three monuments on the tree of Shanxi merchants, namely camel gang, boathouse gang and ticket number.

Chaozhou merchants, Huizhou merchants and Shanxi merchants are the "three big business gangs" in the history of China.

Shanxi merchants can be traced back to the warrior jackal, the father of Wu Zetian, during the Sui and Tang Dynasties.

When Li Yuan and his son set out from Taiyuan, the timber merchant Wu gave great financial support. It was with the financial resources of the most elite Taiyuan Army and Wu Shi that Li Yuan and his son began to seize the national political power.

After the founding of People's Republic of China (PRC), the Wu family was named lord protector, which was equal to that of Cheng.

You can imagine how much property Li Yuan and his son got from Wu Shi at that time, and Wu Shi also got huge returns from his original ingenious political investment.

Later, an unprecedented Empress Wu Zetian was born in the history of China.

Of course, this is another story.

The root of the success of Shanxi merchants lies in the business gang policy of "honesty" and "unity".

The brilliant figure of Shanxi merchants is Qiao Zhiyong.

Shanxi merchants declined in the late Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China for various reasons, and Shanxi began to become relatively dull on the economic stage in China. It can almost be said that Shanxi businessmen can only talk about Kong Xiangxi, Li Yanhong, Chen Nian and Guo Taiming.

The culture of Shanxi merchants has not been well preserved, so that Shanxi is still in a backward state in the whole country.

The Relationship between Post-Jin Regime and Shanxi Merchants

As early as the end of the Ming Dynasty, some Shanxi businessmen took Zhangjiakou as their base, traveled to and from Shanhaiguan, engaged in trade activities, delivered materials for the Manchu regime, and even delivered documents and information.

According to the records of the Qing Dynasty, the mandate of heaven lasted for three years (16 18), and there were 16 businessmen from Shandong, Shanxi, Hedong, Hexi, Suzhou and Hangzhou in Fushun. Nurhachi "generously paid and repatriated".

Shanxi merchants' trade activities inside and outside Shanhaiguan gave great support to the post-Jin regime in terms of materials, and the post-Jin regime also gave courtesy and attention to Shanxi merchants.

Shanxi merchants played a cooperative role in strengthening the rule of Qing rulers over Mongolia.

In the third year of Jin Chongde (1637), Huang Taiji ordered the Manchu nobles to lead 100 mainland Han businessmen to carry goods to Guihua City for trade.

The Qing army entered the customs, the military expenditure soared, and the finance was very difficult. In this regard, Zu Kefa and Zhang Cunren, who participated in politics in Duchayuan, once suggested: "Shandong is the way of grain transportation, and Shanxi is the way of merchants, and it is urgent to please. If the soldiers and civilians of the two provinces belong to our territory, then the money will come out and the country will not need it. "

Therefore, the post-Jin regime adopted the policy of wooing Shanxi businessmen.

In the early years of Shunzhi, the Qing Dynasty named Fan, a wealthy businessman in Shaanxi, as an imperial envoy of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. He gave birth to Zhangjiakou in the interior office. Entrusted by the imperial court, he traveled inside and outside Shanhaiguan. 18 years old lost his match in the government.

In the process of unifying the whole country, in the large-scale military operations of past dynasties, most of the Qing Dynasty received financial support from Shanxi merchants.

In the middle of Kangxi, during the suppression of the feudal rebellion in Junggar, the Qing Dynasty organized some Han businessmen to trade with the army.

They followed the Qing army, went deep into Mongolian grasslands, trafficked military supplies such as rations and horses, and did business with Mongols.

Most of these "traveling Mongolians" were Shanxi merchants named as "imperial merchants" by the Qing court, and some of them were Han businessmen from Zhili (Hebei) and other places.

They ensured the logistics needs of the military operations of the Qing army.

Of course, the Qing dynasty also gave these businessmen the privilege of monopolizing profits, which made them gain a lot.

The unusual relationship between the Qing Dynasty and businessmen naturally had a considerable impact on the formulation of political and economic policies in the Qing Dynasty.

The Development and Decline of Shanxi Merchants in Qing Dynasty

After the Qing soldiers entered the Central Plains, the Mongolian region came under the rule of the Qing Dynasty, and the commerce in the city of Gui Dynasty began to flourish.

In the middle period of Kangxi, Shanxi merchants entered the trade of outer Mongolian grassland, Songliao plain and inner and outer Mongolian grassland, which became a new market for Shanxi merchants' trafficking trade.

At that time, Mongolian-Chinese trade had to pass through Zhangjiakou and Shahukou (later changed to Cheng Guihua), commonly known as Dongkou and Xikou.

The eight famous businessmen in Zhangjiakou are from Shanxi, and the biggest enterprise is "Xinglong Kui" founded by Jia Fankai, a native of Qixian County. This commercial enterprise has more than 290 employees (some people say that * * * is about 65,438+0,000), and it was the second largest foreign trade enterprise of China in the Qing Dynasty.

In Shahukou, the western mouth of Mongolian trade, Shanxi businessmen often trade in Daqingshan and Xiying, and get special care from the Qing Dynasty and get high profits.

These Mongolian-speaking businessmen are called "general businessmen", and the largest of them is Dashengkui, which is run by Shanxi people and employs six or seven thousand people. It has been described that Dashengkui's property can be spread from Cullen to Beijing for fifty taels of silver ingots.

In Ningxia, most of the famous big firms are operated by Shanxi businessmen in Wanrong, Pingyao, Yuci and Linyi, and half of the famous medicinal material Lycium barbarum in Ningxia is in the hands of "Qingtaiheng" operated by Shanxi people.

In Qinghai, Shanxi merchants are based in Xining and active in various counties.

In Beijing, rice and flour lines are mostly run by Qixian people; Oil and salt hotels are mostly operated by Xiangling people; Paper shops are mostly operated by Linfen and Xiangling people; Most of the cloth shops are run by Yicheng people, and there is a cloth shop west of Xianyukou, all of which are Yicheng people. Up to now, Shanxi merchants such as Fushan and Linfen have established and operated such famous firms as Unichang, Liubiju and Lerentang in Beijing.

In addition, Shanxi merchants also went to Sichuan, Yunnan, Guizhou, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangxi, Anhui, Guangdong and other places for business activities.

Most houses in Pan Hao Street were built by Shanxi merchants.

Guang Sheng Yuan, Guang Maoxing and Guang Yiyi are actually enterprises established by Shanxi people in Guangzhou.

Tea exported by sea, such as tea shipped to Indonesia, is purchased by Shanxi people at the place of origin and shipped to Guangzhou, and Chaozhou businessmen buy it from Shanxi businessmen and then ship it to Nanyang.

As for the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River, salt merchants in Yangzhou, tea merchants in Jiangxi and Fujian, and trade with Japan from the Yangtze River estuary are also the most active.

Shanxi businessmen have also opened up foreign markets. Shanxi people first traded with Russia by land. In more than a dozen Russian cities, such as Moscow and Petersburg, firms or semicolons run by Shanxi people have appeared.

In Korea and Japan, the trade of Shanxi merchants is also very active. Yuci Changjia exported Xiabu from China and imported Ginseng from North Korea, and was called "Ginseng Rich Man". Jiexiu Jia Fan almost monopolized the import of crude copper to Japan and the export of department stores.

During the reign of Qing Dynasty, the most famous commercial families that flourished for more than 200 years were: Chang family in Yuci, Nie family, Cao Shi in Taigu, Qiao family and Qu family in Qixian, Li family in Pingyao, Hou Shi family and Ji family in Jiexiu, Kang family in Linfen, Pan Shi in Wanrong and Yang family in Yangcheng.

They are not only big businessmen, loan sharks, but also big landlords. They all have extremely abundant capital.

The internal and external causes of the decline of Shanxi merchants in the Qing Dynasty are mainly manifested in the following four aspects:

1. Shanxi merchants in Ming and Qing Dynasties were vassals of the feudal ruling class.

At the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, Shanxi merchants were promoted by the rulers of the Ming Dynasty, raising their salaries for the northern border towns. After entering the Qing Dynasty, they gained commercial privileges as imperial merchants. In the Qing dynasty, because of the replacement of the Qing dynasty and the exchange of military salaries, they were held to the forefront of the financial community.

In a word, Shanxi merchants in Ming and Qing dynasties always existed by feudalism and prospered for feudalism.

However, when the feudal system is declining, Shanxi merchants will inevitably bring disaster to themselves.

For example, after the Gengzi Incident, Zhixin Bank sent funds to the southern province to lend, but most of the funds sent to the southern province during the Revolution of 1911 were lost.

However, the Qing court was anxious to refund the money. As a result, there were 4 million taels of cashier on the books and 2 million taels of silver payable, but in fact they could not turn around and were forced to close down.

In the early years of the Republic of China, creditors mostly sat in Taigu, Pingyao, Qixian and other places in Shanxi to collect debts. Due to the heavy losses of the banks, Cai Dong was unable to repay them, so he had to sell his house and land, even fled to other places, and some even became beggars.

2. The traditional concept of "relying on the end and keeping the foundation" has bound the development of Shanxi merchants.

It is not uncommon for Shanxi merchants' capital to flow to the land in the Ming Dynasty.

After the Qing Dynasty, it was very common for Shanxi merchants to buy land.

There is a folk song that says: "Shanxi People's Congress mattress covers, build a house for the elderly and make a fortune."

This "big mattress cover" refers to a cloth cover that looks like a mattress, and can also be put on the back of an animal for people to ride.

This ballad reflects the traditional idea that Shanxi businessmen go out to do business and get rich, and then build houses and farm for the elderly. Under the control of this traditional concept, their commercial capital is not conducive to the development of modern capital.

3, stick to the rules, conservative thinking.

As mentioned above, with the invasion of foreign capitalism, the old business model was broken. Accelerating reform and conforming to the trend is the way to seek self-development.

However, due to the stubborn ideas of some influential financiers and general managers in Shanxi merchants, they lost the opportunity of banking reform four times.

4. The investment cycle of modern enterprises is too long.

At the beginning of the 20th century, some people of insight in Shanxi merchants devoted themselves to the modern industry of national capital with great enthusiasm. However, due to the influence of the mine protection movement at that time, their funds were mainly invested in the coal industry with large investment, long validity period, high management requirements and restricted by transportation conditions, rather than the textile industries such as cotton spinning, flour and cigarettes with low investment and high profits, resulting in a large backlog of funds and being in trouble.